Impetuous, yet inconsistent writings about knitting and life in general

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Challenges

I heard an interview the other day that got me thinking. It was an interview of Barbara G. Walker. You know The Barbara Walker of A Treasury of Knitting Patterns fame? Or Knitting from the Top? An amazing woman, who sleeps 4 to 6 hours a night. And she is going to be 80 years old on July 2nd!

In her interview she stated that she didn't learn how to knit until I think she said 35. It was her practice to learn something new every winter. She would go to the library and basically give herself a course on a topic. For instance, she studied architecture. And one of the winters, she taught herself to knit.

And I was thinking, what a wonderful thing to do. Take the time, when the earth is taking a rest, and learn something new. For you see, I have been a bit of a procrastinator in the past few years. I think it started when I was beginning to get burned out at work, and it spilled into my personal life. Which is strange for me, because in the past when I wanted to do something, well, I just did it. I decided to go to grad school and get an MBA and I did. I thought I could pass the CPA exam, so I took classes while working full time and took the exam and passed. I decided to become an attorney, and went to law school at night for 4 years while I was working 50 hours or more a week, and I finished and passed the California bar, one of the 3 hardest bar exams. So I have a history of taking on challenges and meeting them.

But somewhere in the past few years, things have changed. It's not like I haven't wanted to do things, because that certainly is not the case. It's just that I have had ideas, with little or no follow through.

So, I am going to borrow a page from the formidable Ms. Walker, and take on a challenge. I have signed up for photography classes, both through the local community college, and through the camera store, and I am going to learn about photography and how to take pictures with the new camera this winter. I am also doing another project, one that will cause me to do research at the library, complete assignments and accept criticism. I am not going to say what this project is, because it's something I want to keep to myself for a while. But, I did go to the library today. And I did do some reading today for my project. I have some other things to do to get the ball rolling. I have a starting point. And I have taken the first step.

5 comments:

I don't know if you've heard of The Pioneer Woman blog but if not she has a great blog and one of the sections she blogs about often is photography and the use of Photoshop software. My sister, who teaches photography in the Springs, loves to read her blog on photography to pick up new things.